Book review by Roland M. Wagner, PhD., San Jose State University,
San Jose, California

John Philipps was born in the German colony of Landau in the Black
Sea region, and raised during the crucial transition period of the
late 1920s and the 1930s, while the Soviet collectivization progra,
was imposed. He attended an agricultural college and became a professional
agronomist. While serving in this capacity he was able to travel
throughout the Black Sea region, where he became intimately familiar
with local agrarian and social conditions in the German colonies.
One of the most important facts that should be emphasized about
this book is that it was based on information acquired on a first-hand
basis, by a trained expert, who had wide exposure to local socioeconomic
conditions and who was in a unique position to observe the events
that transpired during these crucial decades.

In an earlier book, Die deutschen Bauern am Schwarzen Meer
(Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, 1994, 106 pages), Philipps
shared some of his first-hand information and impressions about
life in the German village during the early Soviet era. In this
current book he has greatly expanded the information (The new German
edition is nearly double in size). While the focus remains on the
Beresan colonies, Philipps includes brief sections on the Kutschurgan,
Glückstal, and other regions as well, and also on some of the major
individual farmsteads or Khutors (Sattler, Schwarz, Schardt,
Reisenhauer, Meuchel, etc.). He provides valuable information about
a wide variety of topics, including the Civil War, the great famines
of 1921 and 1932, and operations of the sovkhoz and Kolkhoz
collective farms. One useful resource for specialized translation
is that he provides German terminology and descriptions for various
farming implements, some of which readers may recall, such as the
Putzmühle, the Dampfmaschine (Parowik), the Dreischarpflug,
and so on. His narrative is enrichened by stories of everyday tribulations
of the farmers in the Ukraine, such as their struggles with gophers
(Erdhasen, or Ziesel), devilishly efficient little
diggers who could destroy fields with their deep tunnels. The final
pages of the book are quite moving, when Philipps speaks personally
abut the occupation by the Wehrmacht during the Second World
War, and the evacuation of the colonists to the Wartegau.
He participated as a team leader in this mass migration. He describes
how the colonists felt when they had to abandon the colonies that
had been foounded by their ancestors 150 years before, as they began
the long trek to unknown territory in the Wartegau, and the
conditions they encountered there.

The volume is enriched by numerous photographs, regional maps,
and detailed village plot maps, showing the names of families and
where they resided in the Beresan colonies. He also incorporates
some of the new information that is forthcoming from Russian archives,
providing lists of names of Germans who were "liquidated" during
the Stalinst years of oppression. This goldmine of information is
now being expertly translated by Brigitte von Budde of the Germans
from Russia Heritage Collection, and it should soon be available
to a wider English-speaking audience. In either the German or English
forms, it is valuable reference work for all those who are interested
in the German colonies of the Black Sea region.

Permission
to use any images from the GRHC website may be requested
by contacting Michael
M. Miller